


Prince of Flowers

by raven_aorla



Series: Our Agency [7]
Category: 18th Century CE RPF, 19th Century CE RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Aztec Mythology - Freeform, Canon Intersex Character, Canon Nonbinary Character, Canon Queer Characters, Canon Trans Character, Gen, Humor, Pride, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 09:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14891765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raven_aorla/pseuds/raven_aorla
Summary: Chev is offered an intriguing assignment that will conflict with attending certain events. Alas![Written for Pride 2018.]





	Prince of Flowers

Reinette removed the small stone figurine from its box with gloved hands and carefully placed it on a cloth in the center of the conference table. “Mr. 15 considers this job too small for the likes of him to coordinate, so I’ll be your handler.”

“Oh noooo,” Chev said sarcastically, taking a sip of iced tea. They and their boss had finished up their most recent spat four days ago. Chev was too profitable and possessed too much blackmail material to fire.

Reinette continued, “The client stole this from the British Museum thirteen years ago as part of some sort of initiation to a secret society, and has recently become convinced that it’s brought a curse upon him. He replaced it with a decoy during the theft and it was never detected. Now he wants the decoy and original swapped back within the next week, secretly so that he doesn’t get into trouble retroactively. I bet there's a big event coming up that he needs good luck for.”

Chev leaned forward to peer at it, as did Ada. Charles Babbage was busy crouching on the carpet fighting his slightly uneven shoelaces. Chev noted the vaguely familiar squared-yet-wiggly designs around the base which reminded them of ancient Mesoamerican art, though they couldn’t be more specific. It took the shape of a man on a throne with his mouth open and eyes upturned towards the sky, a flower design on his chest. “I’m supposed to break into a museum to _return_ something?”

“Will you take the job? It’ll be twice your usual rate due to the rush, and plane tickets compensated. I negotiated for you in advance.” Reinette pointed at the figurine. “That’s Xochipilli. Aztec. The era of origin and where it should go in the museum will be in your briefing packet.”

“I can go to the Pride parade with Pierre that weekend, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Ada said, pausing her rapid typing to pat Chev’s shoulder. Chev still didn’t know what her orientation actually was; by this point they were starting to suspect it was objectum sexuality towards her custom-built laptop with its unique operating system.

Chev groaned. “He’s going with Friedrich. It’s that I promised Barry I'd help with the trans*/nonbinary/intersex booth.” It would have been irritating that the three categories would be lumped together, but Chev liked keeping people guessing about which of those they were. 

“I made lockpicks that can open display cases,” Charles said, getting to his feet. “I tried them in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I took a dead moth out of the display case. Display cases should not have dead moths. Ada tried turning off cameras and alarms and things. I do hardware, Ada does software.”

Ada gave Charles a fond smile before turning to Chev. “I’m confident that I can smooth your way in and out of the place. Also, I inherited my dad’s flat in London, and you’re welcome to stay there. There’s a doorman who can provide you an alibi as long as you climb out the window out of his sight on your way to the reverse heist.”

“The _tsieh_ ,” Charles mumbled, still standing. He’d previously said he didn’t like the chairs in here.

“Present as a different gender when you’re scoping out the place beforehand,” Reinette reminded them.

“Well, duh,” Chev said. They were going to say yes, because it was a lot of money and maybe they could do a bit of sightseeing as part of further alibi establishment. They knew Reinette knew they were going to say yes, otherwise she wouldn’t have asked the tech duo to attend. Chev still reserved the right to be disgruntled about the timing.

“Xochipilli means _Prince of Flowers_ ,” Reinette said, with the air of someone revealing their winning hand. “He’s the god of art, games, dance, song, beauty, and homosexuals.”

“See, you’d be restoring the closest thing to the God of Pride Parades,” Ada declared.

“I suppose if you put it that way,” Chev said, then finished their drink. 

(Pierre wasn’t cleared to know what the assignment was, but he sprinkled Chev with copious handfuls of rainbow confetti when they got back from completing it.)


End file.
